Check out Janggi (Korean Chess), our featured variant for November, 2024.

This page is written by the game's inventor, Hans Bodlaender.

Heraldic Extinction Chess

Heraldic Chess is a variant of chess, invented by Modest Solans. Cards or dice determine with which pieces to play. The Heraldic Chess sets from Solans have pieces with a colored band in the middle of each piece. These colors make a distinction between different pieces of the same type and the same player. There are eight colors: each pawn has a different color, and each major piece has a different color.

Extinction Chess is an exiting chess variant, invented by R. Wayne Schmittberger - a player wins when all pieces of one type are taken. Heraldic Extinction Chess is the idea of Extinction Chess, applied to Heraldic Chess; hopefully this variant gives the same kind of exitement as Extinction Chess does.

Rules

The rules of orthodox chess are followed, but with the following modification. A player wins when he has taken all pieces of the opponent that were in the opening setup on the same line. There is no check, checkmate, or stalemate. E.g., when the king of a player is taken, then in order for the opponent to win, he must also take or have taken the pawn that started on the e-line in the game.

This game is easily played with a Heraldic Chess set. The setup is as follows:

When a player has taken both equally colored pieces of the opponent, he wins.


Written by Hans Bodlaender.
WWW page created: 4 Oct 2000. Last modified on: 4 Oct 2000.